29 years ago the space shuttle Challenger blew up. I also bought a house.

The house had been on the market for 2 years, starting out at $22,900. When I looked at it, it was down to $17,900. I didn’t have a Realtor, and offered $14,500. They took it.

Three months later I contracted Dayton Door Sales to replace the sliding siding doors on my garage with a pair of “modern” overhead garage doors. Next thing you know, I’d broken the law for fixing up my house. I went to the city commission, expecting representation, compassion, assistance- all I got was stonewalled, stone-faced stares. That was the reason I decided that Dayton needed a new mayor.

Apparently so did a lot of other people, and the primary was a 6-way affair- with Mike Turner coming in second to Clay Dixon and me, with my $1,000 campaign, coming in fourth.

So it was only fitting that today I went to the commission again. This time to ask why they can’t deal with a few inches of snow. I explained, when schools close, single parents have to stop work to take care of their kids, meaning small businesses suffer from lack of staff. Kids, who often only eat because they are in school- go hungry. The whole thing is the most anti “economic development” scam going.

I suggested they work on some alternatives:

Set alternate pickup points on snow days on heavy duty streets- avoiding driving into neighborhoods with narrow streets. Kids would have to walk a little, but, we could get routes to schools cleared.

Open a few strategic schools as day-care centers- staffed to feed kids, and keep them out of trouble so their parents can still work.

Or, plow the damn streets.

I suggested that maybe the answer is getting more CDL drivers in city hall to work when we have snow. You know- like the overpaid “economic development people” or the city commission’s staff.

As always- no response. I was the only speaker. The mayor moved on to closing comments, and voila- for the first time in 29 years, Commissioner Williams did the unthinkable- he agreed with me in public- and asked for answers.

Maybe this is just posing for the new city manager? Maybe it’s because I’m right- that this is unacceptable. They called up Fred Stoval, director of Public Works who gave a great song and dance about a lack of salt. Remember, I was asking about plowing- not salt. There are places where you can’t use salt- like Fargo ND, where the temperature stays well below the point where salt is effective- and they don’t close with 4″ of snow. However, my time was up- and no one on the commission is smart enough to question the lame answers.

Turns out, Mr. Stovall can muster about 60 drivers- and work them one 16-hour shift before he sends them home. That’s pulling everyone in public works except the trash guys. Of course, they are now on a 4-day work week- so pulling them for a day wouldn’t kill things unless it’s a week with a three day weekend, but again- no one on the commission engages in critical thinking 101.

He can also hit up the water department to help when clearing downtown. But, again, 16 hours with 60 trucks- no relief. Hello? Ever heard of temps? It’s also questionably legal for anyone to drive with a CDL for more than 10 hours in a 24-hour period, but, I’m not going to get into the legal part of all this. The reality is- 16 hours is mega OT.

The real solution is to have 180-200 qualified CDL drivers for snow duty. That way, you keep your 60 plows going 24-7 until everything is plowed- on 8-hour safe shifts. When the snow hits- there should be no other priority higher. Snow clogged streets hurt our kids, our single parents, make it hard for emergency responders to do their jobs- the only people who benefit are body shop owners- and hospitals that have to deal with the accidents that are results of our political malfeasance.

Face it- this isn’t Syracuse or Buffalo- both the first two snowfalls were under 4″ – there is no reason to close anything for less than a foot- if you have competent public works. We don’t.

This is what we pay our taxes for. It’s time to get our money’s worth.

I’ve been saying this for 29 years- and only today, did the commission catch on, but only barely.

Write a letter to your commissioners- write emails, call, demand better. This isn’t rocket science- it’s shoveling snow. Salt is not the problem- throwing it in our wounded city is.

Some of you have the day off. Some march. Some go to fancy banquets and listen to stories of “back in the day” and many take for granted what King fought for.

More people don’t vote now, more than before King when people were blocked from voting. Call it apathy, call it indifference, but considering the effort that it took to change the system, the system hasn’t changed as much as King hoped.

And while King is celebrated today- many still don’t understand that at the time, he was still not recognized as a force of nature.

The beginning of the famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” began with an admission by King that “Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work.”

The sum total of his response 6,921 words. Of course, he was in jail and had time to write.

Fast forward to 2015- and if the civil rights movement were getting started today. If King put up 6921 words- he’d get TL/DR (too long didn’t read) by most.

And while his goal in most protests was to create imagery of many people marching, or to bait racist police chiefs into letting loose the dogs, hoping for headlines- media today wouldn’t work the same way. If civil rights wasn’t done then, it may not have happened, or set the groundwork for things to come like marriage equality.

The one thing that distinguished King from others, was his ability to attract followers- to have a herd to be heard. There were many detractors, but those core followers made the difference.

“You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations.”

He was challenged as an “outside agitator” by many. His response was clear “Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial ‘outside agitator’ idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.”

The real question is who is going to lead the next clear battle in American Civil Rights- the one that will truly end poverty, end class inequity and bring back the ideals of “all men are created equal” and that they all have the opportunity to engage in the pursuit of life, liberty and the happiness that seems to be evading so many?

It’s time for people to take the time to read the long versions, it’s time for people to ask questions, and it’s time to find new leadership that isn’t beholden to the mighty dollar. The underlying causes of inequality are still here today.

We can celebrate King’s victories all we want, but, to think the battle has been won, is to kid yourself.

South Park has been lucky. For at least the last 20 years, we’ve had a “Community Based Police Officer” or two- paid for by the good folks at Premier Health Partners/Miami Valley Hospital.

Since we’re a Historic District, and they can’t just bulldoze South Park- they figured they better make sure it’s safe, so their employees and patients aren’t scared away- or car jacked on the way to the hospital. At first, we even had a social worker working with the CBP’s as we like to refer to them- to work out issues where the police may not be the best solution. It was an attempt to do creative problem solving. It wasn’t the right answer.

Since the effort began, things have changed thanks to the Internet, Facebook and a strong neighborhood organization. A private group started on FB to discuss and report crime within the ‘hood. Now when your car got broken into- you’d know instantly if you were a single target- or if they had walked a few streets on the way to your car. People would then review their security cams. One of our neighbors who was adamantly against video surveillance- ended up finding out who totaled her boyfriend’s car thanks to a neighbor who caught it on video. We could share mugshots of the people who were police suspects- we now know who to be wary of, and what they are wanted for. But, even with increased information, we were still not getting the results we wanted.

There was one petty thief who kept returning to the neighborhood to live with his mom between stints in prison, and like clockwork, we knew when he was out as garage burglaries picked up. He solved our problem by finally OD’ing on heroin. One problem solved. Unfortunately now, he might be saved by a police officer with Narcan. I’m not so sure I’m a fan of Narcan unless the very next step is always a year-long treatment/rehabilitation program that’s inpatient and that works. Otherwise, we’re just recycling our problems.

This last crime spree was getting increasingly annoying. You’ve seen the post about our neighborhood cancer home, and there have been a few other stories in the news. Enter the most successful crime-fighting tool we’ve found: a former Dayton cop who knows the system inside and out.

He has served as an advocate for the community, collecting all the information about the crimes, the perps, their records, their probation status- and working with the police and the prosecutors to make the case as strong as possible. You know those cork boards of criminal families you see in cop shows- he’s building them and getting input from residents on who is related to who, and who their friends or “running buddies” are. This all takes time.

He’s given the neighborhood the information to write letters to judges just before the case comes to trial. He’s worked with police and the probation department to do spot bed checks on juveniles with court-imposed curfews. With prosecutors, police and probation officials all overworked, he’s served as their criminal concierge, serving up the bad guys for maximum effect when they get to court. The focus on outcomes being reported back in a timely fashion, makes it clear to all that this is now a neighborhood that won’t accept plea bargains, light sentences or too many chances for the low-lifers who are making our neighborhood suffer.

So far, we’ve got about 8 bad actors getting hit hard with the full book. We’re still looking at going into mediation with one crime house to see what it will take to just get them to leave the area. Others are being tossed by landlords who “didn’t know.” Never before have we had such a good flow of information about the courts, the police, the perps and the outcomes.

Here is the secret to successful community based policing in summary:

Have a well-defined neighborhood with good boundaries.

Have a strong neighborhood organization, with a great online communication structure.

Assign at least two police officers to the neighborhood, who come to meetings, share a private number and are highly visible and well known to the neighbors.

Provide information on criminal records, mug shots, good descriptions of the problem children to the community. Make it clear who the police think are suspects, and ask for help with license plates, hours of activity, what they are wearing etc.

Have a coordinator who knows the police, probation, judges, court system, prosecutors working to collect and organize everything from insurance claims, video surveillance footage, records, and serve as a communications hub between all parties.

In the last month, we’ve seen probation revoked, landlords evicting, cases consolidated and coordinated and even new efforts with “surge patrolling” by the police department, “bait” programs to catch petty thieves stealing, and a heightened level of alert, resulting in more people calling to report even the smallest of criminal behavior, or when we hear gunshots. Things that used to be ignored, now go reported, and have led to arrests.

Ideally, it shouldn’t be this difficult to live in the City of Dayton. Oakwood residents never have to commit this amount of time and energy to providing for their public safety. It’s unfortunate that the focus of our leaders hasn’t been a clean, safe community for decades, but that’s the first level of building strong communities. The foundation. The one that can’t be ignored- ever.

In the next few weeks we’ll find out if more judges respond to these improved tactics and how it changes things in South Park. Will the criminal element that lives and steals here learn that crime won’t pay in South Park anymore? To be continued…

At the last election there was going to be an empty seat on the Dayton City Commission if Nan won or lost. The party screened candidates, and selected incumbent Joey Williams and former State School Board and Dayton Board of Education member Jeffery Mims.

A local minister, Darryl Fairchild had already printed up a 2-color letterhead, “Fairchild 2013.” (Note, when running for office, never put the date on stuff you could reuse). When the endorsements were announced, Darryl wheeled to the front of the room and fell on his sword, sweeping the door open for Mr. Mims, thinking he was next in line. When the city had to modify the dais in the commission chambers for Dean Lovelace in a wheelchair, I even heard- “well, we’re going to have to do it for when Darryl gets on the commission” from someone. (For the record, Lovelace should have vacated the seat for his extended absences, and there should have been a special election).

On Tuesday, six candidates screened for the two seats coming up for re-election. Matt Joseph, the three-term incumbent who has yet to distinguish himself with any real legislative issues, and five others including yours truly. As previously reported, David Greer who ran last time, Hazel Rountree who just took a seat a year ago on the DPS board, Fairchild, and newcomer Chris Shaw who is “a fourth-generation business owner and active in the local NAACP” according to party chair Mark Owens (who is the Dayton Clerk of Courts and is up for re-election).

Thursday came and the announcement was made in the party executive committee that the screening committee had selected Joseph and Shaw. A few people were wondering how Fairchild had been thrown under the bus. A screening committee member said “well that would be running two white guys” since Fairchild and Joseph are both white, Shaw is black. I protested that the party could endorse 4 Dems (and still not endorse me) since the way this works is that if more than 4 people run, there is a runoff (not a primary- since the race is non-partisan) to select 4, and only the top 2 vote-getters win in November. Since there are obviously going to be more than 4 people in this race, wouldn’t it be smarter to have 4 Dems in the final? And let the people decide? I was booed, hissed, told to shut up- and got nasty looks. One other person asked why not Darryl? Wasn’t he promised this chance when he stepped aside so graciously for the good of the party? The answer was no- he wasn’t promised anything.

This is the way the Democratic party works- 4 years ago Nan and Rhine McLin were inseparable, with some even speculating that there was a sexual relationship between them. After Rhine lost to Gary Leitzell in the upset of the century- Rhine became a pariah. The people in power in the Dem party would eat their babies in order to protect their fiefdoms.

There were other endorsements as well. Judge Pickerel has “aged out” of being able to run, and his open seat was screened as well. Three candidates including the just deposed Frances McGee Cromartie who was their endorsed candidate in November to return to Common Pleas. She was passed over, despite being a McGee. Some loyalists challenged that decision- only to be told that the person they were endorsing had 20+ years experience in the municipal court and Frances didn’t. Never mind that Common Please handles much tougher cases than Muni. Nope, lose an election, and unless you raise a lot of money like Sharen Neuhardt, we put you out to pasture.

So the question is, who are these people on the “Screening committee” who try to take the democracy out of the ballot box and keep it behind closed doors in Dem Party HQ? As an elected member of the central committee and elected to the executive committee (thank you A.J. Wagner and Joe Lacey) I didn’t remember electing, selecting, discussing who was on this committee. I asked for the list- and was given it- surprisingly. The members are selected by the party chairman, Mark Owens. Mostly made up of elected officials, former elected officials, patronage job holders who are jockeying to be the anointed one when their benefactor decides to step down, and labor leaders. Here’s the list. I’m sorry I haven’t had time to fill in all the job positions, but I will gladly take your input to fill in the few blanks.

First name

Last name

Position

Debra

Armanini

Mat Heck's number 2

Willis

Blackshear

County Recorder

Sam

Braun

Mr. Whaley- works for Karl Keith

Gregory

Brush

County Clerk of Courts

Cena

Buchannon

Rick

Carne

Former Tony Hall Chief of Staff- now a lobbyist

Dana

Clark

Dave

Fecke

Vice Chair UAW

Greg

Flannagan

Public information officer for Mat Heck

Dan

Foley

County Commissioner

Tim

Gorman

Husband of Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Barbara Gorman

Steven

Harsman

Deputy Chief of the Board of Elections

Mat

Heck

County Prosecutor

Dale

Herzog

Dayton Building and Construction
Trades Council

Robert

Jones

Russell

Joseph

Mark Owen's heir apparent

Matt

Joseph

City Commissioner, brother of Russ

Karl

Keith

County Auditor

Carl

Kennebrew

President IUE-CWA Local 755

Beverly

King

Board of Elections worker who hires her rapist brother

Marcia

Knox

Regional Director AFSCME Region 8

Dennis A.

Lieberman

Former Party Chair, Clayton Trustee, husband of County Commissioner Debbie

Nancy

Marino

Trotwood Dem Club

Jim

McCarthy

Head of Miami Valley Fair Housing

Jeffrey

Mims

City Commissioner

Charles

Morton

Dayton-Miami Valley AFL-CIO Regional Labor Council

Genevieve

Murphy

State Young Dem President, Nan's shadow

John

Murphy

Gen Murphy's Dad- BOE worker

Leonard

Oram

Head Probation Officer for Vandalia municipal Court run by Mat Heck's wife, Cynthia

Mark

Owens

Party Chair, Dayton Clerk of Courts

Varney

Richmond

FORMER President of Teamsters Local 957 as of Jan 10, 2015

Tom

Ritchie, Sr.

AFSCME, formerly on BOE

Paul

Robinson, Jr.

Chief Deputy Treasurer

David

Saphire

Brice

Sims

Jefferson TWP Trustee

Troy

Singer

Cathy

Startzman

Legislative Aide County Commission

Fred

Strahorn

State Rep

John

Theobold

Legislative Aide County Commission

Meghan

Thomas

Works for Mark Owens in Clerk of Courts

Nolan

Thomas

Assistant. Prosecuting Attorney

Lynn

Thomasson, Sr.

County Clerk of Courts

Willie

Thorpe

Asst to the President IUE-CWA

Dawn

Wojcik

Party exec.

These are the people who “endorse” after a ten-minute presentation. The questions, which I’ve published before are minimal (2012 answers)- but always include the “In your race, if the Democratic Party endorses someone other than you, will you run against the endorsed candidate? If yes, why?”

The question is, are you, one of the few remaining dedicated voters in Montgomery County willing to keep allowing this system to exist- to limit choice on the ballot?

Will you vote the “stupid voter slate card” blindly?

This is why judges are rarely opposed. This is why many people never run. This is how the Monarchy of Montgomery keeps the gravy train going and the friends and family fat and happy.

After getting coddled through his term, Dean Lovelace will finish his two plus decades of doing next to nothing on the Dayton City Commission. A purported idealist, with a good heart and some good ideas that were way beyond his pay grade, Lovelace didn’t do much to change Dayton – but did build his retirement fund.

Misguided efforts included the predatory lending issue (bought out by the banks at the state level) and the living wage bill (only applied to city employees and contracts- so minimal). For 22 years on the Commission, that’s not a lot to hang your hat on.

The City Charter clearly says that if you miss more than 5 meetings in a row- it’s time to go. His time to go was after his first stroke. He’s contributed next to nothing since- at times, saying things that would make you wonder if he was all there.

The Dem’s have their golden boy already picked. He’s been sending letters to members of the central committee asking for support and his endorsement- on letterhead he had printed for the last commission election- the one where he withdrew so last golden boy, Jeff Mims could take his anointed seat. If anyone can point out what legislation Mims has introduced, or positions he’s taken other than saying “yes, mam” to the Queen of our city, her royal highness, her nannyness, Mayor Whaley, please feel free to share.

Expect to hear lots about what Matt Joseph has introduced in the coming months- all of it, fed to him by others including the future Clerk of Courts- his brother, the political braintrust of the Democratic party, Russ Joseph who works for Mark Owens, our current Dayton clerk of courts.

The already picked but not voted on by the “selection committee of the Montgomery County Democratic Party” that doesn’t believe in the democratic process of primaries- is the Rev. Darryl Fairchild. Part of the reason the commission had no problem spending money making the dais wheelchair accessible for Dean after his stroke- was because Darryl would need it.

From Facebook

Other candidates in the mix, are social media man of the hour on the West Side, Tommy Owens, who is surveying his friends on FB. David K. Greer who ran last time, and a host of others. The Montgomery County Board of Elections has the following list of candidates-

Matt Joseph, sitting commissioner.

Marcus Rech- contacted me and will not be filing for personal reasons

Hazel Rountree who is on the School Board. Recently elected, she’d have to resign from the school board to be on city commission as far as I know. She’s a PhD who works at Wright State.

Chris Shaw- no idea.

Scott Sliver whom I’ve known for 25 years plus. He’s a touchy-feely progressive minister at the Vineyard church who loves to feed poor people. He gave up his career in advertising to serve the lord- and just recently moved from a big house in Beavercreek to downtown. This sets up a battle of the men of the cloth.

The signatures aren’t due until 60 days before the election which is May 5th 2015, making the turn in around Mar. 5th.

The un-Democratic party is going to have its endorsement meeting next week. The question is, who was invited? I’m on the Executive Committee of the party- and I wasn’t aware of invites.

I’m debating running right now. Getting signatures isn’t a lot of fun- which is why Greer has been getting them since the fall. I’ve just been given a few more years with my father- thanks to the VA doing an amazing surgery, and he’d prefer it if I didn’t run. I’ve got enough to do, making sure our kids have basketball nets- a job, at least some people appreciate, and I have a business to run and a wonderful girlfriend to spend my evenings with.

If I saw $2,500 come into my campaign fund- in the next 30 days, it would sway me to run, but if it doesn’t make it to that- at least I’ll have plenty of money for nets, rims, paint, and some t-shirts and balls to give the kids. Donation is on the right of this page.

Gary Leitzell has told me he won’t run for city commission, mostly because working with Nan is next to impossible. Finding someone to question her, and others on our commission in their continued march to mediocrity should be on the minds of all Dayton voters. How many dollars can we spend on failed or misguided “economic development” while ignoring basic services. I can literally ice skate on Bonner Street right now.

The VA is government-run health care. It’s the largest single health care organization in the United States. The patients they see aren’t like the patients that our private health care system treats- they are different. Many of them have been to hell and back and are already living on borrowed time.

My father, is an 87-year-old Army Veteran with a cornucopia of medical issues. When I was in fourth grade he suffered a heart attack, and doctors gave him less than five years to live. He’d broken up a fight outside a Boston bar in the fifties while driving a cab to put himself through Boston University- and had been stabbed in the back (the VA put him back together then too). He’d had multiple heart surgeries over the years- each one more risky. He has a low grade cancer. He’s diabetic. He’s not what you call an ideal candidate for surgery. In fact, in the pre-op meeting, the anesthesiologist flat out opened with “this surgery will kill you”

That had been the reason they didn’t opt to operate over five years ago when the hernia began. At that time I didn’t challenge the doctor. And neither did my father. He sucked it up and drove on. That’s what old soldiers do. Older people also are less likely to challenge their doctors- it’s just not what they do.

I watched as the hernia grew. And grew. His quality of life kept getting worse. After his first heart attack he started running- jogging as we called it in those days. Running one mile was his first goal- as laid out in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police workout. That was the state of athletic training then. Calisthenics and a run. I remember “running” with him- at a snail’s pace. A 12 minute mile was an amazing accomplishment at first. He kept running- and tracking it on the wall at the JCC on Mayfield Road in Cleveland Heights. He loves to tell people how he ran 3,500 miles. And the cardiologist, who gave him five years to live- died before those five years were up- and they were close in age at the time.

After five years of an ever-growing hernia, he sometimes sat on his special cushion the VA had given him- with a cutout for the distended parts- and just hung his head. I know how uncomfortable it is- having had both a hernia and a varicocele. He never complained.

The turning point was when his pacemaker/defibrillator battery began to near end of life. The doctors all got in a big hurry to operate to replace the battery, device, add leads etc. I said “hold it. You won’t operate on the hernia that’s making him miserable, but have no problem operating on a 10-year-old pacemaker that’s pacing less than 1% of the time and has never defibrillated?” Why is your CYA device more important than everyday life?

I got stern lectures from our GP (we see the same guy) – from cardiology, from pulmonary- all giving all the reasons that one surgery was risky and the other was somehow warranted. The surgeon, luckily saw my point of view and thought she could give it a shot. All the departments that had to sign off, all did so grudgingly and pointed out the things that would make it risky. About two weeks ago, we were on the pre-op consultation rounds and the anesthesiologist flat out said “you’ll die on the table” explaining how his damaged heart’s output wasn’t up to the task of moving the oxygen after surgery.

My father faced a decision. Go on with the ever increasing mass- or risk an almost certain death. We spent the last 2 weeks talking, eating at his favorite places- Smashburger and the Amber Rose. We went over the will, the insurance, the notifications- and today, we headed off to the VA at Oh Dark Thirty for the big day. It was almost 1:30 when the surgeon came out to tell us how it went.

The hole, which is usually the size of a quarter was big enough to fit two hands in. The small intestine had descended instead of the colon. He was suffering from malabsorption in addition- thank to the pieces not being in the right place. They did some innovative anesthesia. When he came to, his first words were “I’m alive.” When I got to see him, he had more color than he’s had in the last year- and his smile was ear to ear (even without most of his teeth).

As Yoda would say, “the will to live is strong with this one.” Others would say, he’s too stubborn to die. My mother, his wife of 60 years, cried tears of joy more than a few times today. I found out on Facebook how many people I’ve touched who were willing to keep him in their thoughts and prayers.

And, this is a story that none of you will read on the front page of the Dayton Daily news- or any other “newspaper” in this country. All you’ll ever hear about the VA is how they made a mistake. As if they don’t make mistakes in every single hospital in the world.

There were other families in the waiting room today. The surgical waiting room is staffed by volunteers- a wonderful woman from Belmont who is a military widow. I didn’t catch her name, but I couldn’t have asked for someone who kept us all smiling through the wait on our loved ones. There was a common bond in that room, not only of those waiting for possibly bad news- but of those who have a common bond of service to this country. There were no strangers in the room. Something that’s pretty common in every VA I’ve ever been in.

The room is stocked and funded by the Disabled American Veterans – who supply free snacks, coffee, tea, water. The TV is donated by Best Buy. The only things missing were wi-fi and cell reception :-) I’ve decided that the bare walls needed some art by veterans on the walls- and have reached out to two Marines I know who are amazing photographers for some prints.

My father isn’t out of the woods yet. There are always post-op complications possible. But, the other families who were waiting, they all got good news too.

But when the VA does good, you won’t read about that anywhere but here. And I am so thankful for the changes that the Director, Glenn Costie has made and the new surgical leadership they have in place.

I urge all veterans in the area, even those in perfect health, to please go out to the Dayton VA and register with them for care. As long as you have a DD 214, and an honorable discharge, they have services available to you.

Thank you for reading. And thank you for supporting our veterans by funding this amazing service.

Not quite sure why a public site would hide the registration info- but there is the possibility that someone didn’t renew the URL and a squatter bought it and is holding it for ransom- or, the new city website developer is moving domains to the more proper .gov domain- and just didn’t bother to build a site worth indexing.

We had four to five inches of dry powder fall last night. You didn’t even have to brush your car off- driving and wipers would blow it all off, yet, schools are closed and even the base is closed. LexisNexis shut down- an internet based business- more so because the employees have to stay home to take care of kids who are staying home. Ripple effect.

Costs to businesses- huge. Cost to community huge.

And, let’s face it- most of the people who get to play hookey for the day- are still getting paid. Teachers- paid. Base employees – paid. Note- these people get paid with tax dollars. The working poor- who are slaving minimum wage jobs to begin with- who now have to make other arrangements for child care- they don’t get paid if they don’t work.

This is called inequity. And the root cause? Government that can’t get the job of plowing streets done. They claim they don’t have the money to do it.

So- simple solution- take the teachers pay- take the base employees pay- and put it into a snow day fund- that pays for roads to be cleared.

Or- maybe, change the laws about snow days- and make them mandatory make up days in the summer- maybe that way, they won’t continue to be paid days off. As to the base employees- I don’t recall the grunts in the Korean War, or the Battle of the Bulge getting days off because of a little snow. Last I checked, we’re still flying missions- and at war somewhere- so there are no excuses for staying home.

Oh, but, the risk of accident or injury from driving in these “horrible conditions”- suck it. Learn how to drive in the snow- or move to Florida. Just kidding- but the reality is, if this city hadn’t sprawled- we wouldn’t have the miles of roads to clear. Bad leadership, still hasn’t taken responsibility for proper emergency services. Need an example- just look at the current fight over who is going to provide Fire and EMS to the Cornerstone project. Seriously, if the ‘burbs and townships can’t get their act together- they should immediately be disbanded and forced to become part of the county- who should be responsible for clearing all the roads- not individual municipalities.

This isn’t my first rant about snow days- here are two oldies but goodies:

It’s time we stopped worrying as much about “economic development” which isn’t governments job- and start worrying about keeping the streets, schools, businesses and military bases open which is governments job. It’s time for the snow sissy’s to be held accountable and made to pay for their lame decisions.

If Warren Price was so informed through interviews, undoubtedly, he read some of Esrati.com

It’s probably impossible to read all of it at this point- 2,323 Posts, 20,354 Comments. It’s been informing Dayton since 2005, which makes this the granddaddy of all Dayton political blogs and alternative news sources. I look at this as your site- even though it has my name on it- since you’ve written 10 times the number of posts that I have.

If you are searching for information on why Dayton- the city and the region is the way it is- or how it got that way, there is no other accessible, searchable source that covers so much. UrbanOhio.com has some forums that are pretty interesting- but, it’s statewide with a focus toward Cleveland. Trying to find anything via the Dayton Daily News search tools is a lesson in frustration- and if you are looking for conversation via comments, you can forget it (apparently right now their commenting system is busted- not removed permanently).

Here’s the “relevant” info on Price from today’s DDn story- it’s pretty apparent they haven’t had time to do any real digging on him or get an extended interview:

Dayton City Commission selected Warren Price as the next city manager, making him the first person since 1996 to be hired for the top job without having previously worked for the city.

Price, 42, serves as the general counsel to the Stark County Sheriff, as well as the human resources director for a staff of 220 full-time public safety employees….

City leaders said Price has considerable and relevant experience in public service and has demonstrated that he strongly shares their top priorities, including improving customer service at all levels of government.

They said Price has an impressive knowledge of the city and region, and it is clear he knows how to supervise employees and collaborate with multiple stakeholders….

Price is the first hire for the position with no prior experience working for the city since Valerie Lemme 18 years ago. Lemme at the time was the city manager in Petersburg, Va….

Price beat two internal candidates for the job, including Dayton Assistant City Manager Shelley Dickstein and Aviation Director Terrence Slaybaugh. He was one of six people who were interviewed in person by city commissioners…

He said growing the city will be his focus, which is possible through providing exemplary services and keeping the community safe, clean and well maintained….

Price has 12 years of local government management experience.

He worked for the city of Canton from 2009 to 2013. Before that, Price was the legal counsel for Springfield Twp. in Summit County, which has about 15,000 residents. For three years in the mid-2000s, he served on the Alliance City Council.

He also worked for two law firms and was a zoning administrator in Lake Twp. and a zoning inspector and code enforcement official in Alliance. He served in the U.S. Navy and graduated from the University of Akron School of Law.

Price will be paid $160,000 annually, and he will receive standard executive benefits, such as paid holidays, annual leave, health insurance and dental insurance. He expects to start on Jan. 12….

The first indication of what kind of City Manager we’ll have will be where he chooses to live. Former City Manager Riordan skirted this issue by renting an apartment during his tenure. Of course, the fact that we passed him over in the past and he moved to Cincy following Valerie Lemmie is all water under the bridge at this point from our financial savior. Of course, I’m thinking he’ll end up in South Park- since he has kids who will probably attend Holy Angels and CJ. I can think of a few houses that are for sale right now that would be good choices and one that’s not on the market.

If you do a quick search on Warren Price, you’ll surely stumble on the Stark County Political Report- a blog that’s somewhat similar to esrati.com. A quick read of it says we’re in all new territory when it comes to Price as City Manager- which is awesome, until he actually tries to be a city manager and runs into Her Highness’ power trip.

Price isn’t afraid of speaking in public- even to a blogger. He’s a bit of a showman- drinking nasty looking brown tap water on camera (and joking that the sample came out of the toilet) to prove it may look bad- but is safe to drink (hopefully, he’ll never have to do that here).

From what I see, Price, a lawyer and a Navy veteran, seems to be cut from a totally different fabric than anyone we’ve had around since Bill Estabrook or Rick Helwig (Estabrook was fired within a year, because he did shake things up in City Hall and was viewed as then Mayor Mike Turner’s boy).

He has also run for office- which is something that we’ve never had in the modern era- a politically out City Manager. With the possibility of Turner’s seat being open in two years, could we see Whaley vs her new hire? That thought is mind-boggling, and probably not something she thought of when bringing a guy who actually can talk on camera to town. He was introduced to local politics in high school working as a radio reporter, his views on politics are almost comical- especially coming to Dayton: “Politics are an unfortunate means to an end in most cases.”

I’m not seeing him on Social Media- he has a namesake who is a game designer at UbiSoft who drowns out cursory searches- but all indications show he isn’t afraid of engaging social media, which may actually allow for me to do a first- an open interview with someone in appointed office who is willing to go on the record as having talked directly with me (you should be laughing now, if not rolling on the floor). The only one in the past, was former Dayton Mayor Gary Leitzell, although there are many who have no problems talking to me.

The big question is who will he be allowed to push out and what kind of talent will he hire? In the past, City Managers have pretty much been limited in their ability to fire anyone- hence Shelly Dickstein and Stan Early still perennial runners up. And there is the question of if Terry Slaybaugh will stick around, now that he’s been passed over. His loss to the airport would be big.

Looking over everything that I found, I see this as a radical step in the right direction for Dayton. Unlike Lemmie, Price looks to be a much more affable guy- something desperately needed after the dour/sour Riordan who was white-knuckling his way through the financial minefield caused by years of failed leadership. With an outsider, he’s free to blame all the previous woes on past parties and start with a new approach to our primary problem- which was at the end of the DDn article and right on the money:

“Like customers, if (residents) are not happy and not satisfied with the product the city puts out, they’ll leave, and I don’t want them to leave, I want them to stay here,” he said.

While many people make New Year’s Resolutions to change themselves, and after 6 weeks are back to the same old self, what if our state decided to make some radical changes that would make it stand out among its forty-nine brethren?

Of course, our state is run by Republicans bought with corporate cash, so it’s highly unlikely anything will change other than to make sure the 1% skates, but that’s everywhere in America where capitalism has triumphed over democracy.

For starters, let’s go with pet peeves that need to go.

You know the practice of elected officials putting their name all over their office- like the auditor putting his name on the gas pump stickers or the sheriff putting his name on the badge on the squad cars- ban it. Same goes for photos of elected officials in airports, rest stops etc. The only way to do it is if you pay for it out of campaign funds or your salary.

Patronage jobs- the ones awarded to party faithful, supporters, donors- in every political office- banned. Being elected is a position of authority and oversight- not of unlimited power and leaving of the senses. We lose experience and institutional knowledge with these kinds of broad powers and it’s not in the best interest of the people.

The BMV system of patronage. Nope, the BMV isn’t a state-run operation- it’s a contract that goes to political friends- guaranteed money. Why this isn’t handled by the State Highway Patrol is beyond me. Why title bureaus aren’t managed by the same system. And, while they are at it- inspect the vehicle annually like they do in Mass.- because having a bumper, fender, front windshield, intact bodywork really shouldn’t be optional. Studies show that a majority of accidents occur with poorly maintained vehicles.

Moving on to bigger and more important things, it’s time to stop running the entire state based on the Northwest Ordinance of 1785. How we drew county lines, established the many forms of jurisdictions and responsibilities- all need to be re-evaluated. Getting rid of urban townships would be step one, but even more importantly- setting some kind of limits of politicians to people needs to happen. Moraine has an entire set of politicians, police, fire, etc.- when it only has 6,300 residents, while Miami Township and Washington Township have five times that. This whole idea of “Home Rule” allowing cities to create mickey mouse laws like Dayton regulating taxis and Uber- while the rest of the county doesn’t is total BS and needs to go.

88 local governments ought to be enough- although population balance issues between them may make even that number too high. And, by the way- while we’re getting rid of extra government- the school districts- all 600 plus of them, could and should be reduced down to the number of counties.

Taxing districts. We live in Ohio. There it is. One taxing district with statewide income tax. Real Estate Taxing statewide. With less bureaucrats and their patrons sucking at the teat, we can reasonably distribute taxes based on a few factors: population, wealth, needs. Any questions?

This eliminates all local tax incentives, TIF, JEDD, incentives, etc. If Ohio wants to create more green energy- give a tax credit that’s available statewide to anyone who meets criteria- if the tax credit isn’t utilized broadly- it’s rescinded as bad policy and the benefactors must pay it back on a payment plan.

Revamp the state unemployment system. Right now it’s not “insurance” in the conventional sense, it’s a savings account that empties every three years. This is ridiculous and a serious problem for small businesses while some big businesses like GM used to use it as a savings account for planned shutdowns. Having it, and the workers comp system totally revamped to not be company specific except for type of work- with companies that employ workers in more dangerous fields having to pay more. Simple.

Accountable minimum wage systems. If your employees pay income taxes and also accept benefits for medicaid or food stamps, and you employ more than 50 people, you get charged back. No more subsidies for Wal-mart or fast food chains that have been milking this system forever.

The entire system of elections in Ohio and the way it is managed could use an overhaul as well- from the five different database vendors for voter registration systems to the odd patronage rule over local boards of elections. This isn’t a two-party state by law and it shouldn’t be run as one. Changing this is beyond what I can write about here- I’m working on a book about it.

Centralized purchasing programs. We’ve already seen how a combination of laws and contracts ended up in price fixing for road salt in Ohio- but, I’m totally miffed about why other things are so screwed up, like the purchase of cop cars and handguns for police. How hard is it to have a standardized police vehicle statewide- bringing huge economies of scale? Same goes for sidearms, radios, computer systems. Even police and firefighter training- it would seem that these be best done at a statewide level. You wouldn’t believe the costs involved in just marking local cops cars with their individual municipal paint jobs- one car, one paint scheme (cop cars get body work way more than your car does- and replacing all these different paints and vinyls is expensive). Police vehicles are just one example- this could go for so many things from school and government IT to snow plows.

While all the above are general housekeeping changes, that could be adopted by any well-run state, Ohio really needs to do some things that set it apart from other states.

We could adopt smart policies like Voteing by Mail as practiced in Oregon. We could ban fracking like they did in New York. Our changes in how we tax and how we fairly approach businesses with cost structures that are manageable and easily understandable would do a lot to attract business, but we still need more.

Starting with the cost of higher education. Sorry, but winning a college football championship does nothing for the people of Ohio other than providing bragging rights and selling t-shirts. It’s time to reel in the money spent on college sports programs and build a real network of youth sports programs across the state. From proper sports facilities like ice rinks, soccer complexes, velodromes and even bobsled runs- if Ohio approached public access to sports with the same veracity it did Ohio State football- we’d have the best-prepared athletes to begin with. Paying a college football coach five times what you pay the university president is an insult to our intelligence, and paying college presidents at state schools a million a year is also questionable- especially if we only pay the governor $150k a year. Yes- I know I’m jumping around- but State Schools need to be funded so that all Ohio high school grads can afford them. They pay back in the long run.

A technology infrastructure to be jealous of. Make Ohio the first all fiber state- and cover it in wi-fi. If Estonia can do it- why can’t we?

And in the most controversial move for a breadbasket state- make Ohio a little Europe- banning all pesticides, and GMO crops- moving to an organic, sustainable natural agro-economy. With our fertilizer-induced algae blooms only getting worse- and our bountiful clean water a future selling point- it’s time to realize we can’t turn ourselves into a bio-hazard. The changes would be painful for a short term- but in the long term, Ohio would stand apart from the other 49 and with a push for local food- be healthier and less energy dependent.

When it comes to energy we’d also focus on green energy like the biodigesters from Quasar Energy in Cleveland and solar and wind power that have proven their viability. By eliminating nuclear and fossil-fuel power generation we could be clean and green which would be a first.

And as one last socialist move- reclaim the utility infrastructure for the public. The idea of “deregulation” of electricity, gas, internet, phone, cable, etc. is a joke. Most municipal sewer and water systems escaped this insanity and are fine. There is no reason for every consumer to be expected to play commodities trader in picking power prices. Let’s simplify this mess and get over it.

And one last pie-in-the-sky dream- to benefit schoolchildren everywhere- let’s make Ohio the first state to go entirely metric and finally say goodbye to the Queen’s system. How hard can it be if even the Brits did it?

I’m sure there are other ideas out there- feel free to share them in comments. None of this will make any difference at all- just like your new year’s resolutions, but, we’re allowed to dream a bit with every new year.